Annual Report 1 January - 31 December 2010 National Archives Malta A publication of the National Archives Malta, February 2011 © Copyright, National Archives, Malta 2011 National Archives Head Office Hospital Street Rabat RBT1043 Malta Tel: +356 2145 9863 Fax: +356 2145 0078 E-mail: [email protected] www.nationalarchives.gov.mt Cover Images: A 78 rpm recording donated to the National Archives by tenor Paul Asciak and a gramophone donated by the Friends of the National Archives as part of the sound ar- chives initiatives taken during 2010. Cover design: Marlene Gouder Photos: Joseph Amodio, Stephen Busuttil, Kevin Casha, Marlene Gouder, DOI ISSN 1997-6348 2 Table of Contents Foreword 4 1. Mission and Functions 5 1.1 Mission 5 1.2 Functions 5 2. Organisational Structure 5 3. Records Management Unit 5 4. Archives Processing Unit 5 4.1 Accessions 6 4.2 Sorting 6 4.3 Cataloguing 6 4.4 Digitisation 6 5. Public Services Unit 6 5.1 Reading Room Services 7 6. Outreach 7 6.1 Exhibitions / Open Days 7 6.2 National Archives Annual Public Lecture 7 6.3 Educational / Cultural Visits 8 6.4 Internships 9 7. Corporate Management Unit 9 7.1 Finance and Administration 9 7.2 Upkeep of premises 9 8. International Participation 10 8.1 EUROPEANA 10 8.2 APEnet 10 8.3 ICA 10 8.4 Audio-visual Heritage Group 9. National Archives Council 10 10. Volunteers 11 11. Friends of the National Archives 11 12. Publications 11 13. New Digitisation Laboratory in Gozo 12 Photo captions 12 Charts and tables 14 Unaudited financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2010 19 …... The main project during 2010 was related to sound archives. Images depict the gramo- 3 phone donated by the Friends of the National Archives. Foreword In my foreword to last year’s annual report I Our commitment towards the smooth intro- identified the targets for 2010. These were: duction of FOI led us to organise a seminar the lobby for the appointment of records offi- entitled ‘Records Management on the Advent cers in government; the organisation of the of FOI.’ The seminar was well-attended and second National Forum on Archives and the we did the necessary follow up after the publication of the State of Archives Report; event. the work on the National Register of Archives; the issue of storage space; and the work to- The area which did not register the progress wards the successful implementation of the we expected was that of the lack of storage Freedom of Information Legislation. space. This is a problem in all our three re- positories. We cannot accept further acces- During the year progress was registered on sions without tackling this issue. The time all fronts, although not all the issues were when adding a store house to the repositories resolved or registered the same rate of pro- was a remedy is no longer feasible. One has gress. to cater for the security, manning, and upkeep of each repository, and further additions to All the discussions and planning about the the current infrastructure will result in more appointment of records officers were con- fragmentation of services and pressure on the cluded. The process led to the planning of a financial allocation of the National Archives. Certificate course in Archive and Records Our vision for the sector is that one time Management targeted at public officers. The Malta will allocate the necessary funds to course which will be delivered at the Centre build a state-of-the-art National Archives. We for Development, Research and Training is need to cater for the accessions of the com- currently under evaluation by MQC. ing 3 to 4 decades. Issues such as energy efficiency, security, parking and adequate As in previous years the National Archives services to the public can be guaranteed with Council appointed the National Archives to much more flexibility in a newly built environ- compile and publish the State of Archives ment. This target will be a top priority on our report, which report was published and will be agenda for the years to come. discussed in a public Forum on 9 February 2011. The National Register of Archives is fully Charles J. Farrugia functional at www.nationalarchives.gov.mt. BA (Hons), PG Dip Rec. Mgmt, MA, MA (Lond) We plan to give the necessary public informa- National Archivist tion and training to users during 2011. 4 1. Mission and Functions 3. Records Management Unit 1.1 Mission During the year under review the Records Manage- ment Unit continued accepting requests for decisions To preserve the collective memory of the Maltese Na- on retention schedules. Amongst these there were tion through the preservation and accessibility of all queries from the Passports Office, the Telecare Office, public archives regulated by the National Archives Act. the Commerce Division and OPM. In order to start the process leading to the building of an Inspectorate Unit, 1.2 Functions the National Archives recruited an Inspector of Re- cords in November 2010. Works are at hand on the The functions of the National Archives are defined in refurbishment of the offices which will house the Re- Article 4 of the National Archives Act (2005). cords Management Unit. During 2011 we plan to pro- vide further training to the person in question, provide The functions are to: transport facilities and also launch the section formally. i. safeguard the collective memory of the Maltese nation and protect the rights of citizens through the selection, preservation and access to the archives in whatever medium to the highest of standards; ii. establish and maintain a register to be known as the National Register of Archives; iii. monitor with powers of inspection the record- keeping practices within public offices; iv. accept and acquire private records of national significance by gift, purchase, bequest or de- posit; v. provide leadership to Maltese archives in such areas as preservation of archival records, re- cords management and national cooperation schemes; vi. promote the professional training of archivists and records managers. 2. Organisational Structure During the year under review we also organised a nation wide training seminar on ‘Records Management on the Advent of FOI Legislation’. The event was or- The current staff structure consists of thirteen employ- ganised in conjunction with the Association of Com- ees, twelve full-timers and one part-timer. During the monwealth Archivists and Records Managers year under review we had the retirement of a general (ACARM). The tutor during the seminar was the Sec- hand and a messenger. During the same period we retary of ACARM Dr Teresa Bastow. A number of employed an Administrator and an Inspector of Re- officers from various public departments and entities cords. The process to recruit a Conservator was also participated. carried out, and it is hoped that the incumbent starts work during the first quarter of 2011. It is to be noted that after safeguarding the funds for such posts, we had to go through the rigorous processes of the Ca- 4. Archives Processing Unit pacity Building exercise, get all clearances from OPM and also pass through the ETC, and MQC evaluation The most ambitious project during 2010 was the ac- of qualifications. cession of an extensive collection of Tourism records. The records dating from 1958 up to the 1980s were Although the first tangible steps at incrementing the stored in ill-fit storage conditions in a basement at St number of employees with professional personnel Christopher Street in Valletta. All records were trans- have been made, we are constantly insisting with the ferred to the Head Office of the National Archives, Ministry of Finance to increase the annual allocation of where they are being cleaned, re-boxed and cata- funds. Apart from this, we need to have a more flexi- logued. The project is a joint venture between the ble recruitment regime in order to get on board the National Archives, the Ministry of Tourism, and the best people in the least possible time frames. Archives Department of Tourism at the University of Malta. is a specialisation, and identifying qualified people who are ready to join our team is not an easy process. 5 Another two challenges during 2010 were the transfer- by part-timer Mr Michael Ellul. Similar work was car- ring of the collection of the Teachers Documentation ried out on the MFA, TOU, ADC, and OPM fonds. We Centre and the Shipyards records. Following the deci- also dedicated considerable time to upgrade the listing sion to allocate the Floriana premises to the Malta of the Hansard collection. Philharmonic Orchestra, the Teachers Documentation Centre’s records were merged with the holdings of the The Cataloguing Unit was also involved in discussions National Archives. The Shipyards records were also on how the various databases we have can be merged dealt with. Some of the records were brought over to in order to provide centralised access via our web-site. the archives, while others are still temporarily in the These discussions are also considering the upcoming custody of Heritage Malta. APEnet project obligations and also the possibilities of providing the same content to other projects such as 4.1 Accessions EUROPEANA. The lists of accessions that reached the National Ar- 4.4 Digitisation chives are included in Tables 1 and 3, p. 15. The list registers a mix of public documents, mainly the Tour- During the year under review the National Archives ism records, OPM files, records from the Health sector, opened another digitisation laboratory at its Gozo re- and private donations. The most extensive donation pository. This step is aimed at preserving Gozitan was that made by tenor Paul Asciak, who donated the archival heritage, and eventually make this archive contents of an exhibition about his achievements.